Looking for tips, tricks, and experiences of comrades who’ve developed Android apps using Vim, Neovim, or other text editors rather than Android Studio.

It’s been a while since I did any Android development but I want to develop an app for personal use. Between then and now I’ve been using Neovim for everything so I’m loathe to go back to Android Studio but it handles a lot of boiler plate for new projects.

Has anyone got any thoughts or tools to share? I’m very comfortable in the CLI so my dream setup would be using Neovim as a code editor and running build commands etc in a terminal nearby.

  • Muad'Dibber@lemmygrad.ml
    5·
    2 months ago

    I’ve tried and failed at it, many times. You pretty much have no choice but to use android studio. There is a vim plugin for it at least.

    • Red Magpie@lemmygrad.mlOP
      2·
      2 months ago

      Ah that sucks to hear :-( I didn’t know there was even a plugin ecosystem to Android Studio but of course there is.

      I might just use Android studio to set up the project and then do my actual keyboard-bashing in Neovim later. All I really want is the boilerplate set up properly and my app will be a single activity with maybe 3 views, so once that’s all generated I’ll try switching.

      Out of interest, what has been the failure points for you trying this in the past?

      • Muad'Dibber@lemmygrad.ml
        2·
        1 month ago

        Oops, sry missed this one. jdtls , the java language server that works with vim / neovim / helix, and the kotlin-language-server don’t work with android libraries.

        • Red Magpie@lemmygrad.mlOP
          2·
          29 days ago

          No worries re long replies. That’s really interesting. I’ve never used any LSP features before (I am definitely out of touch though) so perhaps this wouldn’t be such a blocker.